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Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Food and Beer Pairings: the Full Sunset Article

Sunset Magazine published a small piece of mine in their October issue. Smaller, it turns out, than they requested or than I submitted. It seems that the photo beguiled the editors so much that they didn't want my words junking things up. I've been getting compliments from folks who have seen it (and there are a lot of you--apparently everyone subscribes to the magazine), but I can barely take credit, so stripped down did the resulting piece become. (Has Gordon Lish become a verb yet? I was Lished!)

Anyway, here's the text I actually sent in.

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IntroductionWhen pairing beer with food, let the “three C’s” be your guide--beers that cut, contrast, or compliment each course. Drier Belgian-style ales, increasingly brewed locally, are especially versatile. And remember, you don’t have to drink a whole bottle with each course--try splitting one with a companion.

Long and tiring? It was a 3 sentence introduction and a couple sentences per beer.

You have to remember that this was for Sunset Magazine, not Beer Advocate. I think Jeff did a good job of picking beers that would appeal to people who don't live and breathe craft. It may see matter-of-fact to you or I because we are already familiar with these beers, but that is probably not the case of the average Sunset reader.

My question is, how could they trim down what you submitted? It full text you posted seemed pretty concise already. Not being a Sunset reader, did the version that saw print still get your message across or was it butchered along with the content?